Thrissur is a district situated in the central part of Kerala state, India. The district is famous for its numerous ancient Temples, Churches, and Mosques and "Pooram" festivals including the world famous Thrissur Pooram.
With its rich history, cultural heritage and archaeological wealth, it is the "Cultural Capital of Kerala.”
K. Suresh District Informatics Officer diotsr@kerala.nic.in
NIC established its district unit in Thrissur in 1988 in the collectorate building. Since then NIC district unit is committed to offer extensive services in the area of Information and Communication Technology to the various State, Central Government departments and public sector units. It has marked its presence in the ICT map of India with its dedication and support to district administration using modern ICT tools.
Major e- Governance initiatives in the District
DC Suite: DCSuite is an open source initiative of NIC Kerala designed exclusively with the integrated suite of applications for the use of Collectorates in the country. As part of DC*Suite implementation NIC has set up a district data centre with control access mechanism with 3 rack servers and a tower server. NIC has established a front end service KIOSK and is offering citizen services, internet services, revenue department services, exam results, acknowledgments etc. from this counter.
Information KIOSK has been setup in collectorate to provide the files status, exam results, SAND availability etc. VC facility has been established in the district as part of KSWAN network. NIC district unit is working as the nodal office to coordinate the VC.
LAN connectivity with more than 160 clients has been set up in the collectorate connecting all the officers. The district administration is heading towards a paperless office using this network. Internet and email facilities are some of the added features of this network.
DCSuite is operational in the district from 11.06.2007 and 92,000 tapals are created digitally and 30000 digital files processed using the system. Till August 2008, 5500 public grievances were cleared through DCSuite.
Front end counter for Citizen Services
SAND: The SAND software is a result of NIC's reinforced commitment to the citizen which aims for a computerised booking mechanism and issue of pass for allotment of sand through multiple service counters. The System completely eliminates the presence of middle men and reduces the price to an affordable rate. The system also ensures that all the contractors, builders, agencies & public get at least a minimum quantity of sand.
e-DROP (Electronically Deploying Randomly Officers for Polling): Manual preparation of posting orders for election duty is a tedious and time- consuming job and it requires lot of man-power. In order to simplify the
Berkwins C.W District Informatics Associate berkins.cw@nic.in
polling procedure Thrissur district unit launched a WEB based solution named e-DROP which was effectively used for last general election in Kerala. Each district will have a database of election related data which includes the staff details from all the institutions in the district. Once all information is fed into the system, posting of officials can be done as per the criteria given by the Election Commission and Government.
District Portal: The official web site of Thrissur district administration http://thrissur.gov.in was completely redesigned and hosted in the government domain by NIC, Thrissur unit with the content management facility. Mandatory disclosures from district administration like RTA decisions, Beneficiary lists and important announcements are the key features of the district portal.
District Portal Inauguration
BHUREKHA- Land Records Computerisation: Nearly 14 lakh land holder's details were entered into the computer and were published on internet for public verification using the BHUREKHA software. Taluk level data centres are maintained for LRC. All village offices in two out of five taluks are computerised and actual mutation are started at village offices.
Training: District unit of NIC has established an academic hall with state of art amenities for training in the areas of general awareness, Office Automation tools and application package modules. Nearly 300 officers of rural department were trained by NIC during the period 2006- 08 on Open Office and various application packages. Every officer & staff in Thrissur collectorate has been trained on open office. Thus the collectorate is 100% open office literate.
Thematic Atlas: NIC has brought out a thematic atlas (version 2.) for Thrissur district and made it available for planning and developmental purpose. 254 village offices are mapped and it contains maps with multiple themes at village level outlayed on a single sheet for effective planning. The data table with village names in Malayalam gives an enhanced facility in the MIS study and planning. Besides, NREGA, CIPA and CONFONET are the Central Projects successfully implemented and developed at Thrissur
State Projects successfully implemented at Thrissur PEARL has been implemented in 30 Sub registrar offices. Customised VAHAN SARATHI SMART has been implemented in one Regional Transport Office Thrissur and 4 joint RTO offices in the district. TIS (Treasury Information System) have been successfully implemented in the District Treasury Office and 14 Sub treasury offices in the Thrissur district.
NIC implemented SPARK (Service and Payroll Administrative Repository of Kerala) and in the first phase service book of all the employees in the collectorate digitised and made online. Various pay bills were generated online using SPARK. General information pertaining to schools in the district including student and teacher's information were fully computerised.
Message from District Collector Sh. V. K. Baby “We are extremely happy to note that, NIC is bringing out Informatics October, 2008 issue with the focus on Thrissur. Since 1998, NIC has been supporting the administration as a total service provider and their committed support is the key factor in the success for many of our e- governance projects. Thrissur is the pioneer in e-governance in India by computerizing Peramangalam village on a participatory mode in data capture and cost sharing with the support of NIC way back in 1993. Since then, we have implemented many innovative governance initiatives like SAND, District Portal, SPARK, Bhurekha, and SMART Move, PEARL and introduction of barcode in documents with the support of NIC district unit. Appreciating the commendable contributions NIC is making in improving e-governance and bridging the digital divide to benefit of the citizens of our great nation.”
For further information contact: NIC District Unit kertsr@nic.in